Omaha daily bee., 1887-12-05
MYSTERIOUS MABEL HOWARD.
Strange Story OF Pretty Guest AZ
n Fifth Avenue Mansion


Every little while the records of the
police are emblazoned with some story
about beautiful and accomplished girl
who is picked up in the street. is we'll
dressed, and to all appearances of good
family, but will give no Understandable
account of herself. a.,
Such cases generally turn out to be
victims of opium or temporary insanity,
or possibly freaks. who, as soon as they
get over the effect OF their momentary
crankism. are taken ava nv their
friends. or go away by themselves, there
being no law to hold them, as they do
not come under those OF the misde-
meanor nor yet the vagrant acts.
But singular case has occurred
lately which puzzles everybody cogniz-
ant of it, in n lordly Fifth avenue man
sion not far above Forty-second street.
About three months ago an exceed
ingly beautiful girl presented herself at
this house and asked TO see its mistress.
She was about eighteen, very richly
dressed, had diamonds on her person
worth several thousands of dollars. and
altogether evidenced high breeding and
wealth. She sent up her name as How
ard and was shown into the parlor.
w men tne IllSttcSS vi lne HOUSE. WHO
was the wife of well known banker,
came down, the young lady, in II very
straightforward way, told the lady, whom
we shall call Smith. that her name was
M abel Howard; that her motherhad
been Il schOOlmate of Mrs. Smiths. men
tioning the school, and an especial
chum, and had told her daughter before
she died. which was four years ago, that
If ever she came to New York she must
seek out Mrs. Smith and call upon her.
All this on the part of Miss Howard so
far was perfectly probable and coherent;
but now when questioned she did not
know what her mothers maiden name
had been, and. stranger still. she could
not tell the name of the place she came
from, though she had only left it n few
months before. nor could she tell where
she had been since then, though she
knew she had only arrived in New York
that day. and had ordered her trunk to
some well known hotel, though of what
name she could not remember.
Mrs. Smith, seeing that the question
ing seemed to disturb Miss Howard very
much, and, being u kind hearted woman,
ceased it, thinking it was only lapse of
memory, perhaps, under the pressure of
some trouble, and, as lunch was an
nounced, invited Miss Howard to take
off her bonnet and partake. The invi-
tation was accepted, and during lunch
the young lady charmed the elder one
by her conversational powers.
She had been to Europe, and resided
in Paris with her father after her
mothers death. She could read and
speak German, French and Italian; but
she could not tell her fathers name,
business or where he, was then; in fact,
was not certain whether he was alive or
not.
During this conversation Mrs. Smith
could not help noticing that her guest
would occasionally wander, not as
though she was inventing her story as
she proceeded. but as if trying to recall
from defective memory.
Somebody says that you can never tell
a gentleman until you see him at table.
Mrs. Smith found that applying this
rule to her guest, she was certainly u
high-bred woman. even if she had not
been convinced of this before. After
lunch was over they returned to the
parlor. and Miss Howard. at the request
of her hostess, sat down to the piano and
very soon showed that she was an ac-
complished musician and had Il lovely
contralto voice.
Then they talked further about Mrs.
Smiths school days. and the lady was
thoroughly convinced that. no matter
from whom she had received the in
formation, Miss Howard was aware of
Mrs. Smiths early life, though she
could not recall the name of the school
| when it was mentioned, nor yet the
name of any of those who had been Mrs.
Smiths early associates, and who might
have been her mother.
AS the afternoon wore on the young
ady made II movement to go, but her
hostess insisted upon her staying until
her husband came, which would be
about o'clock, The young lady cheer
fully assented, and when Mr.. Smith
came in he was introduced with short
explanation of her presence. Smith
was charmed at Il glance, and almost
| forgot his dinner. When that was an
nounced why, of course, Miss Howard
could not go away, and after dinner she
could be sent anywhere she desired in
| the carriage. But after dinner the
young lady seemed so content that the
evening slipped away before any one
| knew it.
She played, she sang, she talked
| French with Smith and Italian with his
| wife, and when told that it was too late
for her to go to strange hotel, and that
| she must stay there that night, after a
moments thought she assented, and
| w IcH IllC tlHlc tIElNcu WIS
to her chamber by Mrs, Smith, who
afterward reported to her husband that
| Miss Howard's underwear was of SUPER
| lative fineness and her diamonds worth
at least 10000, and that she had handed
her pocketbook with her money in to
take care of. On examining this they
were astonished to find that it contained
| thirty-tive 81 600 bills. but not q card or
anything to lead to the identity of the
| young lady. That night Mr.. and Mrs.
| Smith discussed what had better be done
in the case, but the only conclusion AZ
| rived at was that they would not let her
depart next day, or after if they could
| prevent it, until they found out where
She came from and wha her friends
| were.
The next.Tday Mr.. and Mrs. Smith
were more charmed and interested in
| their guest than ever. Smith stayed at
| home all day to see if in conversation
he could elicit anything that would be
clue as to her identity or where she
came from, but to no avail. If IL direct
| question was put to her she seemed
| panied and answered that she had for
| gotten. When offered her money back
she only laughed and said she did not
want it. When Smith proposed to de-
IL Ia,